Conditions: Low Self-esteem
What is low self-esteem?
Self-esteem can be defined as an ability to see our flaws but still hold ourselves in high regard (as no one is perfect).
Self-esteem is your view of yourself, your perception of how others view you, and the thoughts and beliefs you have about yourself, and your world, as well as your future.
Low self-esteem is when someone lacks confidence about who they are and what they can do. They often feel incompetent, unloved, or inadequate. People who struggle with low self-esteem are consistently afraid about making mistakes or letting other people down. Having self-esteem issues can be detrimental to your health and negatively affect your personal and professional relationships. Your inner voice, or the thoughts in your head, can be constantly telling you that you are not good enough or worth anything, even if there is evidence to the contrary. In case of low self-worth, these negative thoughts are not just transient automatic thoughts that come and go but tend to be more rigid and pervasive derogatory ideas about yourself that keep on reoccurring and underpinning your behaviour.
When to seek help?
You are being very critical of yourself, and your low self-esteem is causing ongoing distress
Your low self-esteem makes you catastrophise about things going wrong in everyday life
You find yourself feeling extra-sensitive to criticism
You tend to withdraw socially and disengage from activities due to low self-esteem – your avoidant behaviour reinforces your negative beliefs, affects the outcome, and confirms your core beliefs. For example, you are worried about socialising, so you stop going out, and then you feel isolated.
Treatment recommendations
There are different types of psychological therapies that can be of help such as counselling, psychodynamic psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for example. The selected treatment would be individually tailored to your needs following a comprehensive assessment process in our service.
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